Poultry provide a very important food source as eggs and meat. In modern poultry raising, literally thousands of birds are housed in large buildings which may contain row upon row of cages that are generally positioned along the long dimension of the building. To increase the number of poultry which can be housed in a single building, it is a common procedure to arrange the cages in tiers with the cages being double or triple decked. Separators are positioned beneath the bottoms of the upper cages to deflect the droppings away from the lower cages.
The poultry industry is competitive where the difference between success and failure may be determined by the use of modern labor-saving equipment. Also poultry may be very susceptible to disease under the close conditions used in modern poultry raising. Thus, it is important that the conditions under which the poultry are fed and watered be controlled to prevent disease, to save on labor costs, and to maintain the birds in a good state of health.
In many poultry raising installations, the birds are watered through use of a long trough which may be positioned along a row of cages with openings in the cages providing access to the trough. To maintain the water in a fresh condition, it must be recirculated since standing water is a good growth medium for various types of bacteria such as bacteria which causes enteritis in poultry.
In addition to a water trough, a feed trough will also be positioned on the cages. As the poultry feed and drink within the relatively small confines of the individual cages, a certain amount of feed will be transferred by the poultry from the feed trough to the water trough. Also, dust and dirt particles in the air will settle into the water trough. The various types of solid particles which collect in the water trough make it difficult to keep the trough clean. The solid particles interfere with recirculation of the water and can cause stoppages which obstruct the flow of water through the trough.
Should a stoppage occur in a water trough which supplies water for a large number of birds, a considerable amount of water may overflow onto the floor. The poultry droppings, as described previously, may fall onto the floor of the poultry house where they are periodically collected and removed.
Poultry droppings are much more manageable in a relatively dry state and the contact of water with poultry droppings may produce an unsanitary condition. The contact of water with poultry droppings promotes the formation of ammonia which can be irritating to the poultry and to personnel working in the poultry house. In addition, contact of water with the poultry droppings makes the droppings more difficult to remove since they cannot be conveniently scooped and handled in the same manner as relatively dry droppings.
In meeting the problems posed by the use of water troughs in poultry raising, many poultry raisers now use poultry drinking cups which may be positioned periodically along a row of poultry cages. The cups are each connected through a water feed line fitting to a main water line that may be positioned along the front of a row of cages or along the cage tops, etc. Each of the cups is individually supplied through a water feed line fitting from the main water line to supply water for the birds in one or more cages having access to a drinking cup. The poultry drinking cups are supplied with a valve means to control the flow of water into the cup with the valve means preferably being actuatable by the poultry. Thus, for example, each cup may contain a trigger or a fount whose movement controls the position of the valve means and the flow of water into the cup.
After a time, poultry which are watered with a drinking cup learn how to operate the cup by pecking at the trigger or fount. The cup, thus, provides a source of water which is available on demand by the poultry. Since a single cup will only supply the water needs of a limited number of birds, the leakage of water from a single cup does not pose the same kind of problems as the leakage of water from an obstructed drinking trough which may supply water for a whole row of cages.
A single poultry house may then contain literally thousands of poultry drinking cups which are connected by water feed lines or fittings to a main water line. Periodically, individual cups may have to be replaced or removed for cleaning, etc. At present, this is a laborious task since the cups are individually threaded onto the water feed lines or fittings. Thus, it would be desirable to provide poultry drinking cups which could be readily connected to water feed lines without threading the cup onto the line. This would result in a considerable savings in time and would eliminate the problem of cross-threading where the threads of a cup may be permanently damaged.
During usage of a poultry drinking cup, the beak of the bird is thrust into the cup. Then, as the bird's head is withdrawn from the cup, a certain amount of water may be spilled by the movement of the bird's lower bill. It would be desirable to reduce this water spillage.
During usage, poultry drinking cups may be positioned above a poultry feed trough which runs along the front of a row of cages. In this type of an arrangement, which may be dictated by the shape of the cages and the space available for providing feed and water, there is considerable opportunity for water to spill from the cups into the feed trough. For example, if the valve mechanism of a poultry drinking cup becomes clogged and remains open, water will flow over the side of the cup and into the feed trough.
Drinking cups which may be positioned above a feed trough during usage should desirably include means to divert water which spills from the cups so that it does not fall into the feed trough. This would reduce feed spoilage and would also result in a time savings since the feed trough would not have to be cleaned as frequently.
Frequently, individual drinking cups may be positioned in an opening in a partition between individual cages so that access to the cup may be had from either cage. In securing a cup within such an access opening, it would be desirable that the drinking cup be positioned to provide for easy securing of the cup to the feed line. Further, it would be desirable that the feed line itself be fixedly positioned so as not to be moved by birds using the cup.
In older poultry houses, which previously used a trough for supplying water to the poultry, individual watering cups may be placed above the existing watering trough. With this type of arrangement, it would be desirable to provide the cups with means to divert spilled water into the existing trough. The existing trough would, thereby, serve as a catch basin to carry away the spilled water.
In training poultry to use a drinking cup, it is desirable to attract the poultry to a trigger, fount or other means extending into the cup body whose movement actuates a valve mechanism. Initially, the poultry will not know enough to peck at the trigger or fount. However, when they have obtained water a sufficient number of times by striking the trigger or fount, they will learn to obtain water in this manner.
When a poultry cup is almost empty, the water within the cup settles at a low point within the cup body. To attract the poultry to the trigger or fount, it would be desirable to position the low point of the cup body in close proximity to the trigger or fount. Then, when the poultry obtain water from the low point within the cup body, they will accidently strike the trigger or fount to actuate the valve mechanism.
In watering a large number of poultry within a poultry house, a main water supply pipe may have a length of as much as 300 feet or more and be subjected to wide temperature changes. These temperature changes can cause a considerable contraction and expansion of the pipe. To control expansion, an expansion joint or slidable coupling may be positioned between the shorter pieces of pipe making up the overall pipe span.
These individual pieces of pipe should be fixedly secured in some manner so that they do not move relative to the poultry cages to move the drinking cups with respect to the poultry cages. Thus, it would be desirable to have pipe securing means for conveniently anchoring the shorter pieces of the pipe to the cages. Since the placement of the pipe and the shapes and arrangement of the cages will change from one poultry installation to another, it would be desirable to have a pipe supporting means to support a pipe in any desired position with respect to a poultry cage.
In supplying poultry drinking cups and associated piping and fitting to a poultry raiser, the pipes and fittings, etc. may come into contact with debris of one type or another. This can cause serious problems since debris within the pipes or fittings may clog the pipe or fitting or interfere with the valve mechanism for a drinking cup. Further, during installation, the pipes and fittings will initially be full of air. The presence of air may cause problems after start up by interfering with the operation of the valve mechanism for the cups, etc.
In dealing with problems caused by air or debris, it would be desirable to provide closure means for the pipes and fittings prior to their installation within a poultry house. This would keep the pipes and fittings clean and free from debris. Then, after assembly of the pipes and fittings, but prior to installation of the cups on the feed line fittings, water could be admitted into the water pipe with the cups being sequentially installed as air is bled from the pipes and fittings.